Causes of the American Revolution

“When a certain great king, whose initial is G, Shall force stamps upon paper, and folks to drink tea;

When these folk burn his tea and stamp paper, like stubble, You may guess that this king is the coming to trouble.”

-Phillip Freneau

Navigation Acts1650-1763

British Action- restricted colonial trade, manufacturing and shipping.

Colonial Reaction- smuggling, evasion, and disregard

French and Indian Waraka Seven Year’s War

1754-1763British Action- fought the French and

Huron Indians over control of the Ohio River Valley.

Proclamation of 1763British Action- prohibited colonial

settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

Colonial Reaction- continued to move

westward

One thing led to another…

Sugar Act1764

British Action- taxed sugar from the West IndiesColonial Reaction- protests led to lower

taxes

Quartering Act1765

British Action- required certain colonies to provide food and housing (quartering) to British soldiers

Colonial Reaction- assemblies refused to comply

Stamp Act1765

British Action- taxed almost all printed

materials

British Reaction- repealed (cancelled)

Stamp Act but issued the Declaratory Acts which allowed Parliament to make laws for the colonies in all cases whatsoever.

Colonial Reaction- protested NO TAXATION by

Parliament WITHOUT colonial

REPRESENTATION

Stamp Act1765

Townshend Acts1767

British Action- taxed glass, lead,paper, and tea

Colonial Reaction- smuggling; resistance led to Boston

Massacre; refused to import.

What’s that? A Massacre!!!

Writs of AssistanceBritish Action:A non-specific search warrant used to

look for smuggled goods.

“Revolutionary Tea”There was an old lady lived over the sea

And she was an island queen.Her daughter lived off in a far country

With an ocean of water between.The old lady’s pockets were full of gold,

But never contented was she.She called on her daughter to pay her a tax

Of three-pence a pound on her tea,Of three-pence a pound on her tea.

Tea Act1773

British Action- British East India Tea Company given a

monopoly for colonial tea business with small tax

Colonial Reaction- ships and cargo destroyed by colonists in Boston “Boston Tea Party”

Coercive Actsaka Intolerable Acts

1774British Action- did not allow Massachusetts Assembly

to meet; no town meetings or jury trials; closed the port of Boston

Colonial Reaction- held First Continental Congress to protest the acts and call for a complete boycott of British goods.

“What do we mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution: it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds

and hearts of the people, and this was effected from 1760-1775, in

the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed…”

-John Adams